Dark Angel
by lilian.wyler
Summary: "When someone you love is in danger, when your life is on the line, what would you be willing to do? Some people lose their minds. I lost my soul." As a group of students head for the summer of their lives and end up in a hell, they must push past the impossible to save themselves. The Dark Angel rises, and her path collides with Arrow. T for violence. VERYLow chance of becoming M.
1. Ch1 - Sharks

**A.N: Hi! So, this story has been cooking up in my head for a really long time before I decided to put it on paper. Whoever knows me knows that I love an OC story, and random pairings, which is risky, but fun to write. I'll stop babbling, just one side note: No Olicity! Felicity's appearing, and so are the rest of Team Arrow members, but this is focused on the OC, White Canary, Arrow and Red Arrow/Speedy.**

 **Enjoy! I hope you like it! :)**

* * *

"Elena! Elena! What can you tell us about the last eight months?"

"Allison, please, look over here!"

"Owen! Jenna!"

The camera flashes and the interviewers were overwhelming for the group, who could do nothing but walk, or better, be pushed against the crowd by the security guards. They entered the hospital and the doors were locked, keeping the media out.

Elena looked outside, through the glassy doors, feeling a huge gap in her chest, as if something was missing, and feeling like the last place she should be right now was her town's hospital. It just didn't feel like home anymore, not after everything.

She saw a green hooded figure on the roof in the building in front of the hospital. He was standing, watching, and the gap in her chest increased.

She was called by one of the nurses and taken inside the hospital, where they lied her on a bed and told her they'd make some basic exams that required her to remove her clothes. The doctor, a woman, tried to calm her down, but she wasn't tense. She obeyed, her head far away from where her body was. The only thing she insisted in keeping, and after some stubbornness, they agreed, was her arrowhead necklace.

"Oh my God. Your body is…" The doctor spoke, shocked to see the girl's chest and back. She looked down, nervous.

From outside the hospital, Oliver Queen stood on a roof, watching the building and the people who entered it.

"You know she wants to join us, right?"

He turned around when he heard a friendly voice and nodded.

"Hi, Sara."

* * *

 **Eight Months earlier...**

Summer holidays are always a time of cheerfulness and light hearted moments. It is the time when people are allowed to forget all of their problems and issues and throw themselves in the fun sunny days the world has to offer.

Somewhere in California, a group of friends arranged the last minute preparations for the vacation of their lives. It was the last year of university and they'd all be going their separate ways once they graduated, some even would move abroad. This travel was going to be their last one together before the last semester of classes kicked in. It had to be epic.

Everything was arranged and had been thought thoroughly, a courtesy from Allison Reyes, the naturally blond and tan skinned, green eyed former mean girl and current party planner of the group. The girl was a machine when it came to making arrangements to have the perfect everything: Perfect travel, perfect parties, perfect hotel and perfect tour programs. She had taken care of finding them the best hotel for an affordable price, and bought them tickets to the three best parties in the Caribbean Sea. There was no way anything could ever go wrong.

The travelling tickets were arranged by Lee Guerriero, an half Korean half Italian descendant whose father owned an airlines company. His hair was straight black and he had small freckles on his skin, the result of overexposing it to the California sun. His eyes were wide and blue – inherited from his Italian father – but his face was the exact copy of his mother's, who was Korean. He was shy and loyal, and the travelling tickets were a present from his father, so none of his friends had to pay for anything.

They would be staying in a hotel in Heartkreuz Island, a tropical paradisiacal island in the Caribbean sea, considered one of the most beautiful places in the world during the summer, also perfect for groups of students due to its large amount of night clubs and party in mansions thrown by rich people who always invited anyone and everyone.

They left in a Sunday morning.

"This is going to be epic!" Allison said in an excited voice as the plane crossed the ocean. "Parties, tons of hot, tanned, interesting guys, infinite days to be spent on the beach and hotel pool…"

"Why are we bringing Jenna Mercury along again?"

"Don't start it, Tess." Allison shot her best friend a warning look. "Jenna's friends with Owen, Daniel and Lucas."

"Owen Marshall is a narcissistic politician guy who thinks the world spins around him." Tess stated. "Daniel Yates has already done every single girl in this plane, me included, and he's only as good as sex is. He's a really complicated guy and is often seen alone with some random book and his earphones. Lucas is Jenna's brother, he's just as self centered and bipolar as she is. How is _that_ a good thing?"

"Daniel never did Elena." Allison pointed out with her signature smile, one that showed the world she had hidden plans for something or someone, but no matter how much people pressed, they'd never realize what it was unless she wanted them to.

"That's because no one ever did Elena." Tess rolled her eyes. "Jenna suddenly turned her back on all of us and never looked us in the face again for _no reason_. Why are you being so calm with bringing her along?"

"Because she doesn't matter at all to me." Allison shook her shoulders. "Whether she's in the same room as me or not, it makes no difference. She makes no difference, she's a dead weight and I'm not spending any other minute talking about such unimportant stuff. We are up for the summer of our lives."

"You agree with her, don't you?" Tess turned to Elena, desperate for someone who'd back her hate up. Elena simply smiled.

"You know I don't hold a grudge, Tess. She's done nothing to me. I don't mind her being here."

Tess Mercury was a mix of Blair Waldorf and Santana Lopez. A Queen B at heart, but an eternal follower to Allison, like Santana was to Quinn Fabray in Glee's first season. Also, unlike Blair, Tess wasn't always charming her way through things and delicately dropping bombs and working her takedowns, she had that Santana aggressiveness, but the wit and mind of an Waldorf. Her brown, short hair was tipped black and it gave her amber eyes a rougher demeanor. She was short and had a 34D cup, despite her thin body. She was grudgy and a leader at heart, always driving the shots to herself. She was also a loyal, great friend to have, but she never forgave and forgot.

Allison was gentler. She used to be the mean girl in high school, but university changed her. There is no leading or ruling over a group of people so large, and it was no fun either. The tall blonde learned to blend in and make friends without being a queen per say, but her planner abilities and her decoration and fashion skills made her quickly rise up in the social scale, and everyone knew her. It did make her a little bitchy sometimes, but the girl had a heart and a different way of handling other people's mistakes. Where Tess held a grudge and turned the person into an instant enemy, Allison simply scratched them off her social circle, which could mean social death because she threw the best parties and social meetings around the campus. Also, she liked to state, _"there is nothing as painful as being forgotten. You can be hated, loved, despised, and it won't hit you as harder as if you simply stop mattering. "_

Hence the invitation to Jenna, who had indeed reneged her and her friends out of the blue – and Jenna wasn't a simple acquaintance; she used to be one of Allison's best friends. Allison didn't hate the black haired former friend for what she did, she simply didn't care.

They landed at the early afternoon and the van arranged to pick them up at the airport was already expecting them. Allison, Tess, Elena, Owen, Daniel, Lucas, Jenna and Daniel's friend who went along boarded the van and, before the sun had set, were all in their respective hotel rooms, with their bags undone and ready for some fun time.

They had established that the first night would be free from any schedules. First, because they'd all be tired from the trip, and some of them had worked the previous night, so they needed at least one night to relax. Second, because there were two other friends arriving in the middle of the night, so they'd leave the most interesting things for when everyone was there.

Tess was still grumpy about Jenna being there, so she refused to leave the room, staying in with a bottle of vodka and her favorite soap opera. Elena and Allison left for the beach, hearing there would be a fire at the beach, and some other hotel guests would be drinking and playing the guitar. The two girls arrived there just as the unknown people did, and a cute ash blond guy invited them to join in.

As a girl sang a song, the blonde called Elena's attention.

"Where are you two from?" He asked with a heavy British accent.

"Riverview, California." Elena smiled. "We're here on a group trip. What about you?"

"I'm from around." He answered and she looked curiously at him. He gave her a short, sad smile. "Divorced parents, troublemaker brother… You know the drill. I left my home when I was eighteen and never looked back. I had a Trailer, you know, from when I had a band, so I took it and now I travel around Europe with it. No fixed address."

"It sounds lonely." Elena commented, not sure whether she should feel happy or sad for him.

"It was at first." He agreed. "But I met some really nice friends along the way. Mia, over there-" He pointed at the girl who was singing. "Is an orphan who lived off the streets because the foster system in Italy sucks. I took her in and we started a new band. We met Miro on our way to Russia. He was looking for his sister. Their parents split up when he was young and he had to stay with his father while his sister went with his mother. He sang in the streets to gather money for the bus and food. We took him in and started travelling around after her. She's that blond over there." He pointed at a blond girl who was talking to Allison. "Her name's Marie."

"That's an interesting group. So what brings you all the way to the Caribbean sea?"

"The same as you, we're on vacation." He gave her a brighter smile and she inadvertedly smiled too. "

They spent the rest of the night talking, with Elena and Allison being friendly and welcomed to and by everyone. When they returned to the hotel, it was already after midnight, and they were both a little dazed from the alcohol and giggling like two silly girls.

"That blond guy was totally over you." Allison teased Elena. "What's his name?"

The redheaded frowned, realizing she never asked him.

"I don't know." She spoke and they both laughed. "Miro was hitting on you!"

"Miro? Who's that?"

"The one with the Russian accent." Elena described him. "Marie's brother."

"Marie's the Russian-Belgian girl, right?"

"Belgian?"

"Yes. She was born in Russia and raised in Belgium. She's so funny, you should have talked to her!" The last word came out as a scream as Allison tripped on the exit of the elevator, sprawling on the floor. Elena bent down to help her, but fell down along and they both burst out laughing so loud that the residents of the nearest room had to go outside to reprehend them. They ran to their room, bursting the door open and waking Tess up.

They talked and made plans for the rest of the vacation, and at some point the two drunk girls fell asleep – when Tess was allowed to do the same.

It was hard to tell who had the worst hangover in the morning: Tess or Allison. The brunette had spent half the night drinking Vodka and watching Mexican Soap Operas on her own while the girls had fun in the fire with the tourists. Elena was fine when she woke up, but she had to spend the entire morning taking care of her two best friends before they could leave the bedroom.

They met the rest of the group in the breakfast room. The guys were already in their beachwear, exposing the bodies that they worked all winter and spring to acquire, while Jenna was in her ordinary black and white outfit: black skirt and white top.

Hanna Quay, Tess' best friend, arrived in the middle of the night, along with Charlotte White, a classy rich friend of Elena, who was always up to everything, but with reservations towards food and places. She couldn't stand a dirty oily restaurant or bar, and she wouldn't stay in a cheap hotel if her life depended on it. Despite the rich spoiled picky side, she was sweet and polite, and it was a hard thing not to like her. People sometimes grew tired of her, but it was a temporary thing.

Elena herself wasn't rich, or spoiled. She was insecure and a dreamer, often lost in her own mind, but she was also friendly and compassionate. There wasn't a person in the world she hated, and in her mind, nothing was unforgivable. She trusted people easily and somehow she was easy to trust in, but her shyness made it hard for her to have friends. Owen and Tess were among the people Elena barely talked, purely out of insecurity, fear of not being accepted or being mocked. She had an adventurous side, too. Nobody loved adrenaline and risky sports more than she did. It gave her a sense of freedom that nothing else did.

"So, what's the schedule today?" Owen asked Allison, who gave him a sweet smile. She loved her plans.

"We're off to Feuer Island." She told them. "It's a two hour motorboat drive from here and I've arranged for two of those to take us."

"Why are we leaving an island we haven't even explored to go to another?" Jenna asked.

"Because we can spend the entire month in this island, and the cheaper day to go to Feuer island is today. They say it's a wonderful island, full of waterfalls and surfers. Also, there's a party tonight at the mansion at the top of the mountain."

"Are we supposed to pack our clothes?" Tess asked.

"Nope. It's a beachwear party, so all we need is ourselves. Maybe some powder, but I've got that covered." She assured the girls. "Pack for a day out: towels, sun blocker, glasses, and money. Also, bring your cameras or phones. We leave in one hour."

One hour later, they were all at the beach, waiting for Allison's motorboats. They arrived shortly and the two drivers quickly helped them through the water and into the launch. They had to split into two five-person groups: Allison, Tess, Owen, Hanna and Charlotte went on the first boat, while Elena, Daniel, Jenna, Lucas and Daniel's friend, Eric, went on the second one. They had established that Elena would go with Jenna because she was the only one with whom nobody could pick a fight, so it would make the two hour drive at least bearable.

It started off as a fun sea drive, with the driver showing them the islands around and telling them some interesting sea tales. He was a former sailor who had to leave the wild seas for something calmer because of his newborn daughter, and as such he had the most interesting stories and myths to share. For the first hour, it was enough to keep them distracted and interested.

"What's with the bow and arrow quiver?" Daniel asked, pointing a bow lying on the floor besides the sailor, and a quiver with 24 purple arrows.

"Those are pretty." Elena commented, bending down and examining one of them. The girl frowned. "Those are military grade arrows. The arrowhead is made of titanium and silver." She looked up at the man. "Why'd you have that?"

"Our boss tells us to keep those at the boat, I don't know why." He answered, looking curiously down at the arrows, too. "I never knew they were military."

"Why do you know that?" Daniel asked her.

"I…" Elena stood up to answer him, facing the horizon, and she saw her friend's boat heading for the Feuer Island, while they seemed to be going sideways to another island. "What the hell?"

When she turned to the sailor, he was putting on his life vest and jumping off the boat. He pulled a string and the vest burst to life, sending him back the way he came in a fast speed. She heard him shout an "I'm sorry".

"The motor!" Eric shouted, hurrying and trying to make it work, but it died. As he opened the motor and tried to make sense of what was wrong, Jenna started to scream incoherently about life and death and Allison. Lucas hugged his sister and tried to calm her down, saying they'd be reaching the creepy island soon.

Elena's mind clicked and she grabbed the binoculars the sailor had been using – and luckily dropped – to see the island. They were too far for her to see much, but the enormous colorful flag was hard to miss. She knew that symbol and that island.

"We're heading for the Viper's Mouth!" She spoke, hurriedly grabbing the two paddles that were lying on the side – every motorboat was bound by law to carry at least two pairs of those – and handling them to Daniel and Lucas. "Start paddling!" She ordered, while she turned to see the island and her eye caught a glimpse of something else around them.

Elena cursed. _So that's why we brought these baskets of fish._ She realized as she saw the shark fins. She knew that the sharks around that area weren't aggressive, but they did like to eat and the fish they had aboard was specially smelly. She tried to figure out a way out of that mess without freaking Jenna out.

Looking at the bow, she made a desperate choice.

"Eric, leave it, the motor is dead!" She called him and he turned to look at her and complain when he saw her holding the bow and attaching the quiver to her back. "See those fish? I need you to throw one of those as far away from here as you can, in the air and in the opposite direction we're heading!"

"We can't paddle our way to the other island, Elena!" Daniel complained while Eric tried to understand her sudden behavior. "We're heading for that Island and we can try and call for help!"

"We can't! It's a restricted access island, Daniel! Nobody survives in there without some sort of equipment."

"You're being paranoid." Lucas said in his _know-it-all_ stance. "We're just lost in the sea, why the fuss?"

"What's with the bow?" Jenna added, looking at her as if she were weird. She bit her lip as the two guys paddled in the direction of Viper's Mouth.

Eric suddenly screamed and they all turned towards the direction he was pointing. He had thrown a fish away as Elena had instructed – just for the sake of finding out what she expected to happen – and a huge shark appeared in the surface and engulfed the small fish. Jenna screamed louder and Nathan and Lucas both froze.

Elena managed to grab both paddles before the two goofs dropped them in the sea, but Jenna's scream called the attention of any predator in a few miles ratio. Cursing under her breath, she grabbed the bow again and set an arrow to it.

"Nathan, Lucas, _keep paddling!"_ She commanded, and something in her voice brought them back. Elena was never imposing, she never ordered anybody around and she usually spoke in a low chanting voice, showing her shyness even when she wasn't really feeling shy. The fact that she was now demanding and speaking steadily had its effect and the two quickly obeyed. "Jenna, stop screaming! You're unsettling them! Eric, throw another one!"

Looking at her as if she were crazy, Eric obeyed, throwing it as far as he could. Elena grabbed an arrow and aimed it in the air, waiting. When the shark's mouth appeared in the surface to eat the fish, she shot, hitting it's open mouth and killing it as the arrow crossed through. She smiled and looked at a dumbfolded Eric.

"Another!" She ordered. "There are at least two dozens of them after us!" She spoke as she quickly counted the fins. Jenna sobbed and Eric threw a second fish, his hand slightly shaking. Elena repeated the shooting process, hitting her target again.

As she heard Daniel cursing, she looked back and saw that they were approaching the coast, and from where they were they could already see at least a dozen huge snakes. Those species were carnivores, but they wouldn't eat their own species, which allowed them to share the same space. It sucked, however, for the group of humans that was heading their direction, because they'd be an easy and interesting prey.

"Can you kill them with arrows?" Eric asked hopefully, and she shot him an incredulous look.

"What do you think I am, an Avenger?" She asked and he raised an eyebrow, which made her shake her head. "I can't kill them with arrows, they're too swift, they'd never be hit. Besides, I don't have enough arrows for those sharks and the snakes. _Which is why I told you to take us the other way_." She cast an annoyed look at Daniel and Lucas, who didn't look as confident now.

"Go back to being shy and quiet." Daniel muttered as he worked the paddle. "You're annoying when you're the smart one."

"Do _not_ go back to being shy and quiet." Eric begged. "Get us out of here!"

"I can't!"

She looked at their situation, trying to think of a way out, but no matter how she addressed it, the facts were simple: They had to chose between facing a sea of sharks or an island of snakes.

* * *

 **A.N.: I have NO idea of how Caribbean sharks are, and just so we're clear, Snake Island is actually the nickname for an island in Brazil, near São Paulo's coast, and it is indeed restricted to authorized people because it's considered the deadliest island in the world - some snake species are extremely rare and poisonous there, and I took the idea from it to write Viper's Mouth.**

 **Second: These first two chapters (this one and the next) might contain some unrealistic scenes that will seem like they were written by Jack Sparrow (anyone remembers the hair and turtle tale he told to explain how he left the deserted island?). BUT the rest of it will be more Arrow-like (meaning full of impossible stuff, but nothing we Arrow fans aren't used to (Lazarus pit, anyone?).**

 **That's it for today. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Ch2 - Surfers

**AN: So... I warned previously that this chapter has some unreal situations.**

 **Also, Oliver Queen and Team Arrow finally appear - the crossover between the OC's and our favorite Archer will happen soon. Need to give it some context first.**

 **That's it. Enjoy.**

 **WARNING: Spoiler alert for Arrow! If you're not up to date with Season 3, it might contain spoilers for you!**

* * *

"I don't want to die!" Eric complained, looking desperate at the situation. Nathan shouted something at him and they started what sounded like a pointless argument, in which the girl didn't pay attention.

Elena tuned off. She could hear Jenna crying and Daniel's callings, along with Eric's desperate attempts to make plans that just wouldn't work and Lucas' muttering about random daily facts to keep himself calm. She saw the sharks far away and the small space between the motor box and the boat. Slowly, a highly unlikely plan began to form in her mind, and she started making preparations. First, she grabbed the fish baskets and the sailor's rope that they also had on the motorboat (she should have suspected something was wrong when she saw the odd objects), and tied the baskets up to the motor, making a barricade of sorts, that would definitely keep a small piranhas out, but not sharks. Still, it could work as the barricade she needed.

"Turn the motorboat around." She told her colleagues, grabbing the other pair of paddles and handling them to Eric and Jenna. "Help out, turn us around so that the motor faces the island."

"Why are we not changing our course?" Jenna asked, but obeyed.

"Change it to where? Before you say around the island, there are sharks all around this area. It's pointless."

"Turning this thing around sounds kind of pointless too, no offense." Daniel stated, but as the four colleagues worked together, the boat was quickly in the position she wanted. "Now what?" He asked her as she aimed the arrow at the shore. "You said you couldn't kill the snakes."

"No, I said I don't have enough arrows for all the snakes and sharks, plus those reptiles are big enough to eat a cow. Which means they can easily eat the arrow and I can work with that. I can try to bind them." She said, as she quickly cut off the rope and tied one end of it to the arrow. She aimed it at the shore, in the space between the motor and the boat and smiled as she confirmed that the shooting part would work. Dropping the bow, she quickly grabbed her backpack and took off her sunglasses, breaking the lenses. Using the sharp end of the broken lens, she made a deep cut in her hand and dripped the blood in the dead fish. Quickly, she poured alcohol in her wound – thanking herself mentally for reminding to take some first aid stuff along – and returned to the bow.

"Eric, throw the bloody fish towards the snakes." She commanded and Eric hesitated. "Now!" She shouted as the sharks approached them from the other side. Eric obeyed and threw it, and as a snake promptly opened her mouth to the fish, Elena shot the arrow.

It went straight into the snake's mouth, and her body adjusted to the shape, engulfing it. Elena pulled the rope and the boat shook heavily as the snake hit the motor, but she was stuck by the arrow in her stomach. As It shook it's body, it created a small current, slightly shaking the boat. Grabbing the second piece of the rope, Elena had Eric repeat the throwing process, and they repeated it another seven times – when she ran out of rope. She had attached each rope to one of the baskets, and the barrier made it safe for them: snakes couldn't swim or jump, so they couldn't reach the group. However, being unable to release themselves from the arrangement Elena had done, all they could do was move, and the movement of nine giant snakes worked as a propeller, sending the boat back towards Feuer island.

"Isn't that what we were not supposed to do?" Eric asked, terrified and amazed at her work. "Go towards the sharks?"

"We weren't supposed to go in the speed we were before. We're faster now. Daniel, Lucas, keep up with the paddles! Eric, throw the fish at the sides, very far, to attract the sharks away." As she said it, she started throwing some herself, and they watched as most of the sharks slowly made their ways to the sidelines, open the way for the boat, but they had to keep throwing the fish so the creatures wouldn't return.

"There's one in front of us!" Jenna called, looking at Elena.

"Take my place." Elena commanded her and she obliged. At that point, nobody was questioning the girl anymore. She grabbed her bow and threw a fish towards the single shark that remained in their way. As it appeared, she shot it, taking it down.

They managed to leave the nest of sharks and reach the open, clear, sea. To make sure they wouldn't have problems, Elena threw the entire basket of fish – the only one that wasn't tied to the motor – in the sea, and as they left they watched the remaining sharks eating the thing away.

Seeing Feuer Island slowly approaching, and realizing the danger was gone, Daniel started laughing, and soon the rest of them were laughing, too. Eric fell to his knees on the motorboat and Jenna hugged her brother while crying.

"I can't believe we actually escaped that!" Eric said, looking admiringly at Elena, whose mind was nowhere near the happy scenario they had embraced. "Girl, please tell me you're single." He half asked, half affirmed, making the rest of them laugh even harder.

"When…" Daniel started, in between breaths. "When did you become a badass archer?"

"I've been taking Archery classes since I was sixteen." She told them, feeling the urge to tell them she had a bad feeling, but seeing the way they were, she knew they would call her paranoid. Turning around, she realized the snakes were stopping and she felt guilty. That island was off limits for a reason, and they had invaded it and now they'd be killing off some of the inhabitants. Elena loved animals, she hated harming them.

"Nobody gets that good in only four years." Jenna commented, looking at her suspiciously.

"I trained every day, hidden from my parents and friends." She shrugged. "Besides, it was a simple moving target."

"Simple?" Lucas repeated the word. "What's simple about a humongous snake and a shark?"

She rolled her eyes, giving up, and turned to the snakes, untying the ropes and setting them free – and probably killing them. She then set to untying the fish baskets and putting them down.

She felt a stinging pain in her hand and realized she was still bleeding from the previous cut. Biting her lip, she threw alcohol at it again, this time feeling the full pain – before, in the rush of things, she didn't have space to worry about pain or wounds, she only thought about making it out alive. Now, that the imminent danger was over, she felt the sting with full force.

"This looks painful." Eric commented, opening his bag and getting a bunch of gaze and medicine from it. She looked at him curiously, seeing that there were a lot more complex medicine than the usual first aid kit. He gave her a sweet, confident smile. "You're the badass archer, I'm the doctor." He said, gently taking her hand and pouring some green medicine on it. "Graduated last semester."

"Congratulations" She muttered, watching him stitch up the cut and wrap it in a clean cloth. He tied it firmly and released her, letting her move her hand and close her fingers some times to regain full control over her motions. "I'm not losing anything over this cut, right?" She asked and he assured her she'd be fine.

"When my mother hears about this she'll have me going back home on the first flight." Jenna spoke, and Lucas agreed. Daniel shot them an incredulous look.

"Are you seriously going to tell your parents a story of how we were chased off by sharks to a snake island in which we captured snakes to make them work as our boat's motor?" He asked and the two of them stared blankly at each other. "My parents would never believe me for a second."

"Mine would, but they'd freak out for nothing. We're alive, and we're unharmed." Eric pointed out, shrugging, and Elena rolled her eyes at their lively mood. "Archer girl, smile. Relax. We're safe."

"Why did the pilot jump off?" She asked, finally verbalizing some of her worries. They looked confused at her. "He was supposed to take us to this island, yet he sent our boat the other way and jumped off before we reached the shark area. Not only that, his life vest had a jet thingy attached to it, as if he knew he had to get out of that area fast, so why would he leave us there to die?"

The group stared at each other at a loss for words. After a while in silence, in which the only sounds they heard were the paddles hitting the water, Daniel spoke.

"We just have to be more careful. If anyone sees that pilot, run, and no more boat travels after this one, deal?" He asked and the other three promptly agreed, quickly returning to the cheerful mood. Noticing how Elena didn't follow their lead, Jenna sighed.

"What now? The guy is crazy, that's it." The girl spoke, looking at her former friend. "Let's not look for any more sharks and snakes where there aren't any, ok?"

Hesitantly, Elena nodded, thinking that maybe they were right.

They arrived at Feuer Island and landed on the sand shortly, looking around the paradisiacal beach with a mixture of relief and happiness. Elena noticed the other group's boat a little further ahead and walked up towards it, wondering where everyone would be.

When she stopped and looked inside the motorboat, she had the confirmation that she were right: there was something wrong going on, and her friends were in danger.

"Elena?" Jenna called, walking up to her, but she lift up her hand to the girl so she'd make silence. "What's wrong?"

"Their things are all here." Elena said, looking at the backpacks in the motorboat. "Also, look. There's blood on the floor." She pointed out, feeling sick to her stomach."We're not safe."

* * *

Oliver had never tasted a worse hamburger in his life. He thought about all the horrible meals he had in his five years away, but nothing was as horrible as that Trinkles Burger's sandwich. He chewed on the thing painfully only to please Thea, who seemed extremely satisfied with that piece of hell's food. His younger sister looked oddly lighthearted that day, and he couldn't pass the opportunity of a smiling Thea. It wasn't such a frequent trait anymore and he missed it.

Diggle and Felicity had gone back to Starling City to work with Laurel – the Black Canary – and Nyssa, who had been given permission to join Team Arrow as an ambassador for the League – which was only a poor excuse to be allowed back into Laurel's life. The two warriors had taken over as Starling City's vigilantes, along with Atom, who'd sometimes go up there to help. In the meantime, Oliver and Thea had gone off for her to see the world – his condition to allow her as an official member of Team Arrow was that she'd first have a normal month to make sure of what she wanted. Hence the horrible sandwich in a poor roadside Burger.

"You know… I think I'm satisfied." Oliver spoke, after eating half of his burger. His sister laughed.

"You lasted longer than Roy when I challenged him into eating this crap." She told him much to his surprise. "I was just pranking you, Ollie." He launched her a resigned glance, but ended up laughing, too.

"Any news from Malcolm?" Thea casually asked, and he hesitated.

"They're preparing her body. I think it will be done tonight." He informed her while looking up at the television. "She's been dead for a long time, it might require longer rituals before she's actually sent in the Pit."

"But it will work, right?" The girl asked, anxious. "She'll be back?"

"If everything works out, yes, she'll be back." Oliver said with a sly smile, and then he frowned, looking at the news. "Hey, Miss…" He called the waitress, who promptly walked up to their table with a big flashy smile on her face. "Can you please turn that up?" He asked, pointing at the TV.

"Sure thing, handsome." The waitress said and promptly obliged.

The news anchor was speaking while showing a picture of an island on the map.

" _A group of college students is presumed dead after their motorboat was found in pieces near Viper's Mouth. There are no traces of the students and the only place they could have swam or been washed up to was the snake island, which makes it highly unlikely for any unprepared human being to survive. Not only they were near the snake island, but the boat was destroyed in waters overpopulated by sharks. There are no confirmations of their death yet, but authorities are searching the entire place, while a specialized team is making its way through the Island. We don't have the names of the students on board yet or what exactly happened. This is Caribbean Afternoon News, I'm Resha Valentine. Good Afternoon._

It switched to commercials.

"That's horrible." Thea commented, looking at her brother.

"That's not…" Her brother's eyes betrayed his cool demeanor. "Those students aren't dead." He told her in a low voice and she waited for more. "When Nyssa came back from Nanda Parbat, she brought some information on illegal activities around the Caribbean Sea. She claims that Malcolm knows about it, and has some secret plans regarding it, but the activities might involve hurting a huge amount of people. They attract tourists and kill half of them, so they leave body vestiges, and the other half is taken somewhere for the real plan."

"What real plan?" Thea asked, feeling sick.

"She doesn't know, but we've been looking into it. That's part of the reason we decided to use the Pit again right now. My contacts in the Bratva informed me that the Yakuza, the Triad and the Corsican Mafia are involved, so it can't be simple or neat."

"You have contacts in the Russia Mafia?" Thea asked incredulously.

"I used to be a respected person among them, now it's a little harder for me to reach out to them, but I still have my ways, yes." He answered, remembering that she wasn't around the Arrow side of his life when he dealt with the Bratva. "Something rather big is happening and we need to keep our eyes open."

"That's why you sent Laurel, Felicity and Diggle back home." Thea figured him out. "You don't want them involved."

"They are needed in Starling City, I can't leave the town without someone to take care of it." Oliver explained. "While you and I are a better fit for handling whatever comes."

"You really think I'm a better fit?" Thea's eyebrows shot up. "I mean, I did kick your ass once in my apartment, but…"

"You do know I wasn't fighting seriously, right?" He asked, remembering that day clearly. "Neither I was expecting you to know any moves."

"Right right, whine all you want." She mocked.

"Yes. You're a better fit. Laurel would never be able to survive this kind of battle, and despite Malcolm's flaws, he trained you well. You've got both Queen and Merlyn blood running through your veins, Speedy. Also, I'll feel better having you where I can see."

"So what's our move?" She promptly inquired.

"Wait for news from Nanda Parbat. We can't do this without _her_."

Thea sighed and nodded, wondering how long it would take for a super badass dead warrior to come back from the Lazarus Pit.

* * *

Allison watched the other boat with a feeling of guilt for leaving Elena there. She knew that the shy girl was the only one capable of going on the same boat as Jenna without throwing the girl into the sea, so it had to be like that, but still… It felt like she had excluded her friend, and she hated it.

"Ali, look!" Tess called, pointing towards Feuer Island. "There are surfers on the beach."

It took Allison a few more minutes to actually see the surfers: she saw a group of people and what looked like surf boards, but from that distance, it was hard to tell for sure. Still, the girl's face slowly revealed a smile as she remembered that they were in for the holidays of their lives, and it was starting now.

"Does anyone know why Lee decided to stay back in the hotel? The guy arranged our plane tickets, he should have come." Hanna spoke, looking around.

"He said he wasn't feeling well. I told him that he shouldn't eat those oily things the hotel was serving." Charlotte spoke, rolling her eyes. "Are we staying in the same beach as the surfers? Isn't it dangerous?" She asked apprehensively.

"Would you rather stay in here with the fish?" Tess asked mockingly, staring disgusted at the fish baskets. "Hey, old man, why the bow and arrows?" She inquired, looking at the weapon near the pilot. He ignored her. "Why the ropes, too?"

"Why do you care, Tess? Want to shoot someone?" Owen teased and Tess shot him an angry look.

"Maybe I'll shoot you!" She mocked, and he laughed.

"Why did the other boat turn their course?" Allison asked, interrupting them, looking at the direction they came from. In fact, Elena's group was turning around, going sideways and away from Feuer Island. "Hey, old man! Where are they going?" She demanded, but the pilot simply ignored her, too. "Old man!" She insisted.

Her callings were interrupted by a sudden violent shake in the boat, and she realized they had reached the shore. The eight surfers had formed a horizontal line to greet them, making it look like a barrier. They were all dirty and badly scarred, and their eyes were scary in Allison's opinion.

"What's going on?" She demanded.

"Shut up, Barbie doll." The pilot said, pulling a knife from his belt and waving it. Allison stepped away from it, but she had limited room to escape in that boat, and outside the surfers looked like predators. "Your friends are dead. We needed one of the boats to be found amongst rests of their bodies so people would believe that both boats sank, and the other was just completely consumed by either the sharks or snakes." He spoke with a wicked grin that made Allison's hair crept.

"They're not dead!" Charlotte complained, her eyes full of tears. "Why are you doing this?"

"You'll find out very soon. Now, out!" He commanded, waving the knife. Charlotte and the others backed away to where Allison was. "Don't make me ask again, out!"

Allison jumped on him.

She had no idea of what she'd do, and she knew she had no way to actually take down a man his strength, but she wouldn't be kidnapped and worse without putting up a fight. She scratched him and hit him, actually and accidentally making him drop his knife. Owen, seeing it, grabbed it and tried to hit the man's arm, but he managed to use the girl as a shield.

The blade cut through her shoulder and she screamed, pulling away.

"Owen!" Tess yelled at the guy, who looked appalled. "Ali!" She hurried towards her friend, who was checking her cut. "It's bleeding…"

"It's… It's ok." Allison spoke. "It's superficial. It just hurts." She assured them, while looking apprehensively at the old man, who was full of scratch marks and looking extremely enraged. He pulled at the bow, putting an arrow to it, and pointed at the group.

"Get down or I'll start shooting you. I can't kill you, but this thing can be pretty painful." He spoke, and they had no choice but to get down. Owen helped Allison to the sand, and she quickly stepped away from him. He looked hurt at her distancing.

"So now what? You kill us?" Tess asked.

The surfers laughed.

"You don't recognize me, do you?" One of them, a blond, looked at Allison, who narrowed her eyes. "You wouldn't, given that I looked a lot more appealing last night at that bonfire." As he spoke, her eyes widened and she remembered him as the cute blond who talked to Elena. "Where's your other friend? I liked her."

"On the other boat." Allison answered, hoping that maybe he'd have it turn around to get Elena. He simply sighed, though. "What do you want? Who are you?"

"Sweetheart, why the hurry?" He asked in a fake sweet voice, while approaching Allison and touching her face. She froze, tense. "We have the entire month to talk before we ship you away with the rest." He approached his face to hers and she smelled alcohol and something metallic. "Don't worry, I'll take care of you. Consider this my gift to your friend for being so nice to me: you'll be mine to deal exclusively."

Allison felt her entire body shivering, and her eyes burned, but she refused to cry. She heard Charlotte sniffing, Hanna's hicks and Owen breathing fast. Worse than the three desperate colleagues was Tess, whose breath and posture indicated she was about to do something stupid like launch at them.

The blond held the brunette's hand, pressing at it, and she slowly calmed down.

"Good call." Another surfer told her, and she realized they had noticed Tess' behavior too. "We won't hurt you… Yet." He told them. "We only need you girls to work with us, behave, and you'll be fine. See? It's not that bad." He smiled. "My friend here likes to play the scary surfer, but he won't harm you." He told Allison. "So, come on, follow us."

He turned around and started walking into the island, through the palm trees and oak trees – were there supposed to be oak trees at an island like that? Allison wondered – and up the grassy hills. The grass was so high that they could barely see each other.

It gave Tess the stupidest idea: she ran.

Many things happened in that instant, and Allison would never forget that specific moment, because that was when she realized that however bad things were, they were bound to get worse. She heard Tess fleeing, her heavy steps and the sound of the grass being walked in on were audible to everyone. Hanna screamed her name, and one of the surfers launched after her, holding something metallic in his hand.

Allison recognized the object a second too late, as the man shot and she heard the sound of someone falling. Tess had been shot.

"Tess!" She screamed, trying to run for her friend, but the blond held her by her waist and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't overpower him. In the meantime, Owen had launched against a random surfer, and three of them threw the guy in the floor and blacked him out.

"Stop!" Ali shouted at all of them. "Everyone, stop! We'll go with you!" She told the blond. "Stop hurting them!"

"We can't, Barbie. Gotta teach 'em a lesson." Spoke one of them while dragging Tess back with him. Her left hand was covering a wound in her shoulder. Allison felt some relief: at least it wasn't lethal, not apparently anyway. "Come on now, we'll take you to our Leasher. She ought to tame you wildlings." He spoke, guiding Tess and motioning for them to take Owen along. "Take Barbie and the other two to the main house." He commanded and the blond obliged, resuming their walk up the hill.

Allison heard Charlotte and Hanna sobbing and looked at the sky, wondering how she could see a bright side to any of that. Was there a way out for them?


	3. Ch3 - Lazarus Pit

Oliver and Thea arrived at the Trinity Port, from where they took a ship to the Gargoyle Island. It was the main island from that archipelagos, located near the Viper's Mouth, but not too close that it would made life there dangerous. In fact, it was one of the safest places to live, because the high terrorist activities around drew away any criminals: they wouldn't want the media all over that area.

They booked the penthouse in a luxury hotel – Thea's demands, claiming that she had all the Merlyn fortune and she wanted to use it so they could still keep the Queen living standards. They adjusted themselves in the penthouse and waited until night time, when Merlyn was supposed to contact them.

When night came, the television channel shifted on its own and The Lazarus Pit appeared on it. The siblings watched it in awe as a blonde woman rose from within the pit, slowly, with eyes closed. She stood there for a moment before slowly opening her eyes. Glassy blue, cold eyes that showed no emotion, but to see the life back within them again was already a powerful thing.

She didn't jump at people like Thea did. She simply walked off of the Pit and reached for a white towel, wrapping it around her body. They gave her a sort of serum that would help her mind, and she took it willingly. Then, she looked peacefully at Ra's Al Ghul, who watched the scene from afar.

"How are we seeing this?" Thea asked her brother breathlessly.

"I'm guessing Felicity came through with a new way to communicate with them without being tracked." Oliver shrugged, thinking of the blonde hacker and wondering if she'd done as he asked, and not peeked on what they would be watching, or if she knew by now what was going down.

"More like spy on them." Thea pointed out and he nodded, not being able to deny it. He didn't fully trust Malcolm, and without Nyssa there, it was hard to be sure whether the resurrected blonde would be safe until she got back into her shape.

"Welcome back, dear." Malcolm spoke to her. "I hope we have no hard feelings. You stabbed my back once, I stabbed yours, and now I brought you back. I'd say we're even."

"Why am I back?" She asked in a cold steel voice that made Thea and Oliver smile proudly.

"I have no idea. My daughter and her brother needed you back, and I was at their debt, so here you are." He gave her a phone. "This is a burner phone programmed by Felicity to only work when you reach New York. There is a room booked in Thea's name there, where you can stay until they contact you through this phone. When you leave here, our business is over and you are not to return. I am setting you free from the League, as you always wanted."

She nodded and walked away from whatever camera was allowing them to watch. Oliver sighed and turned off the TV, picking up his phone and calling Felicity.

 _"_ _I already received the notification that my instant camera worked. Were you near a tv or computer? Please tell me you weren't in public. I programmed it to connect with your phone, which would work as an universal remote control and change the channel on the nearest television to your own Nanda Parbat Pay Per View."_ Felicity's rushed words greeted him and he smiled fondly.

"It worked perfectly, Felicity." He assured her, still with a smile on his face. "I take it you didn't watch it?"

" _You told me not to, and honestly, I was too scared of what you would be watching. Just please tell me this wasn't some kink of yours? Oh god, did I just say that out loud?"_

"I didn't want you to watch because I can't tell anyone what this is about now. When it's over, I promise you I'll tell you, ok?"

They hang up and he and Thea went out for dinner. When he got back, he called Sara and they arranged for her meeting up with them at Gargoyle Island, and she'd be arriving at morning. The siblings retired into their beds to get some rest, as they'd start putting things in motion in the following day.

The last thing in Thea's mind was the image of a shark and a snake eating up people. She tugged her pillow, trying to wave it away, hoping that whoever survived that could make it out of the island alive.

* * *

Elena looked around, looking for traces of her friends, but the time gap between the two groups arrival was large enough that any traces in the sands would have been erased by the waves or the wind. She walked up to the grassy area, and looked around, entering the forest. The area was indeed as marvelous as Allison had spoken: the beach water was practically transparent, the trees were extremely green and the shadows they produced between sunrays gave off a mystical relaxing atmosphere: A perfect place for a picnic, or to spend the day relaxing.

She jumped when Jenna suddenly touched her shoulder, and closed her eyes to steady herself.

"Don't walk up on me like that, please." She asked, looking at the girl, who looked worried. "Do you see anything?"

Jenna shook her head.

"I'm not much of a detective, Elena." She spoke, being actually friendly towards the red headed for the first time in a long time. "Or a leader. The way you took charge back there was amazing."

"Thank you." Elena felt her face burning and looked down. When the others approached them, she realized they had left their own boat still there. "We… We should erase our traces. If they come back, it would be better not to let them know we're here."

"How are we going to do that?" Eric inquired, but Daniel took the lead and walked back to their motorboat, turning the remaining fish inside it and spreading it. The scent it gave off was horrible.

"What are you doing?" Lucas called, and when they watched him push the boat away, sending it back into the ocean, they all started cursing him.

"How are we leaving now?"

"That was our way back!"

"The hell we would be getting back in a motorboat without a motor running through a sea full of sharks." Daniel spoke spookily, and they watched as the boat moved slowly away, and was suddenly engulfed by the sharks. "Now they'll think we were killed off like they intended to." He added, looking at Elena. "Right, Queen of Hearts?"

Elena frowned.

"Queen of Hearts?" She repeated.

"Yeah, you know, red hair, bossy attitude…" He numbered and she laughed.

"So now they won't know we arrived. What will we do?" Lucas crossed his arms impatient, and Elena looked between each of them, but they all seemed to expect the answer from her. "You're the one who knows how to survive here."

"I read a lot and watch a lot of TV Series." She informed them, going at the second boat and picking up the arrows. It risked someone noticing that it was missing, but she needed the weapons. "Well, we need to get to a safe place, and try to figure out where the others are, what happened, and how to get out of here."

"We might want to climb the mountain then." Daniel spoke. "It's higher ground, easier to spot others and harder to be spotted."

They all stared at him mutely for a while.

"What? I read and watch TV, too." He informed them, and they laughed while deciding to walk up the mountain. To do that, they needed to go further into the forest. They walked slowly and carefully, watching for clues of any earlier walkers.

Elena stayed behind to make sure they wouldn't be leaving any traces, and noticing how lonely she was, Daniel did the same.

"Is something wrong?" She asked him, looking at the ground.

"I've never seen you speaking up like that before." He told her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm far from alright. My best friends are missing, we're stuck on this scary island, and I am actually the one leading us here, which says a lot of how messed up we are. I couldn't speak up to save my life back in college. Now I'm supposed to do it all the time?"

"Well, you've got instincts, and a hell of an aim." He joked. "I'm used to you coming at me for advice with guys and you're usually full of insecurities. Leader you is a nice version."

"Leader me is as insecure as _not leader me_." She informed him, rolling her eyes. "The fact that I can face a sea full of sharks, but need to run at you for advice with any guys is stupid."

"Well, I think the problem lies with the men you chose, considering how sharks made you feel more alive than any of your past relationships."

She hit his shoulder, and he half hugged her, laughing.

They had just reached the bottom of the mountain, and the grass was so high it covered them entirely. Elena took the front, knowing that it was impossible to worry about their tracks there, so she decided to look for clues and traps instead.

It came as she touched a bunch of grass leaves to open her way, and her hand came out with a few red dots. Frowning, she turned around and examined the area closely, finding blood in a few leaves. It was almost dry.

"Whoever was bleeding in the boat?" Daniel inquired, seeing it too.

"Or another one of them got hurt." She murmured. "They came this way, so be quiet and be careful." She instructed them, but a laughter coming from behind her interrupted whatever she was going to say next. She turned around and immediately aimed an arrow, ready to shoot at sight.

"Easy there, girl" A man appeared in their camp of vision. He held both his hands in the air in the signal of surrendering, but she kept her stance, tense and hoping that nobody would come up from behind her. She could shoot, not fight.

"Who are you?" Lucas demanded. "Where are our friends?"

Elena watched, from the corner of her eye, Jenna discreetly walking away from their view, hiding between the grass, and discreetly nodded at her, mouthing at her to go back to the woods and hide. It occurred to Elena that Jenna's being unimportant, as Allison had said, was actually useful since the girl had a way to go unnoticed that might as well keep her alive there.

"I am not with the people that took your friends. I'm on the other side of the war."

"War?" Daniel repeated.

"It is a long story and we are not in the safest of places. This is Milieu territory and they won't be too fond of me talking to their prey."

"Mili-what?" Eric frowned.

"He has a point." Elena commented, looking around. "Not a safe place to talk."

"And where would be safe? With him?" Lucas asked dubiously. She shook her head.

"In the forest, where at least we have a better control of our surroundings. I can't see a thing here, this grass is too high and too thick." She answered, and looked at the Japanese man, tightening her grip on the bow. "Walk." She commanded, and he obeyed as if it were nothing. She was careful to stay at a safe distance, one where she could shoot before he did some ninja-moves.

 _Ok, now I'm being paranoid._

They reached the woods and stopped where the tree trunks were wider. Elena saw one with lower branches leading up to the top and, in a hurry, climbed it, attaching the bow to her back to do so. She used to climb her grandmother's guavas to spy on the neighbor when she was little, so she found it quite easy.

She mentally thanked herself for wearing jeans shorts instead of the white skirt Allison was urging her to wear. Her shirt – icy white – was completely dirty and transparent at the parts it got wet, showing off her bikini bra.

From up there, she could see better and ended up getting a better shooting angle, and also being safer.

"Speak." She demanded, pointing the bow back at the Japanese guy.

"You kids walked into the Neutral Island." He started, looking admiringly at her. "This is a place where the members of the Delta Alliance gather to do their exchanges and business. Terrible fate for you."

"Why are you telling us that?" She inquired, before asking further questions.

"The Yakuza and the Millieu are sworn enemies and they messed up with one of our business, so this is our payback: I'm messing up with theirs."

"We're not their business either." Daniel spoke defensively.

"You are if you are here. How did you escape them, may I ask?" He sounded impressed.

"Don't." Elena and Daniel both spoke to the other two. "Don't tell him anything." She added. "If the Millieu, whoever those are, wants us and this guy wants to bother them, all he needs to do is kill us off." She added, narrowing her eyes. "So why aren't you?"

"Because I'm not the one with a bow and Arrow." He pointed out.

"Don't play me. Yakuza is the name of the Japanese Mafia." She surprised them all. "Like I said, I watch TV. There was mentioning of them in many Investigative Series throughout time. I take it Millieu is something like it, then?" She looked at him.

"This one is smart." He applauded her. "I like you, you'd make a hell of a spy, kid. You've got the brains and the instinct. Millieu used to be the French mafia, but nowadays they have members from all Europe." He confirmed her guessing.

"So why are the Mafia after us? We're college students." Lucas complained.

"See kid, I just saved you from walking into their headquarters, and I'm not killing you, so you should just say thank you. I am not revealing anything to a bunch of free youngsters."

"Then what now? You'll walk away and leave us be?" Daniel raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"If you keep walking forward, around the mountain, you'll reach the ocean. Figure it out from there onwards, and if we find you again, if you walk in on us, you'll be prey. Got it?" He was serious now, and left before they could say anything.

Elena watched from her spot, seeing him disappear into the woods, and after a while, she got back on the ground, looking at her colleagues.

"Where's my sister?" Lucas inquired.

"Hiding behind a tree near the bottom of the mountain." Elena informed him, and they set off after Jenna, to pick her up and, after discussing it, they'd be following the Japanese's instructions.

They walked for a long time until they reached the other side of the mountain, and the ocean. They stood in the shadows of the woods, and saw a huge ship lowering cargo at the beach.

Then they started loading the ship again, with metallic boxes, coolers and…

"Oh my God." Jenna covered her mouth in horror, her eyes suddenly full of tears. Daniel looked away, and Lucas hugged his sister protectively.

Eric had stayed a little behind to watch their backs, so the only one who really watched it, refusing to look away, was Elena. They dragged people, all chained up to one another. Woman, kids, and even men were being dragged into the ship. They looked wounded, dirty and tired from afar, but she couldn't be sure.

When she saw a woman in a red dress walking up to them, and simply raising her arm, getting them all to kneel immediately, her head clicked. The woman nodded and spoke something, and the entire group spoke back in unison. They then stood up and walked obediently in line, and slowly entered the ship.

They offered no resistance whatsoever.

"They're slaves." Elena whispered to herself, and her suspicions were confirmed when the next cargo to be loaded at the ship was a box full of picks and shovels. She looked at the boxes that had been unloaded at the beach, and, in a bold move, seeing that none of the crew was paying attention to it – it wasn't like they expected anyone to be wandering free there – she ran at it, quickly hiding behind a larger one. From her spot, she managed to open a smaller box, and found it full of shining minerals.

Looking around, seeing that they were still distracted, she grabbed a few and ran back into the woods, from where Daniel and Lucas watched her furiously.

"Are you _insane_?" Daniel asked.

"The hell, Elena? They were inches away! Don't press our luck!"

" _Our luck_?" She stressed. "Mine alone. I'd never tell on you. Besides ,I had to check it." She opened her hand and showed them a dark purple-ish diamond-looking thing. "I think they're shipping slaves." She turned to look back at the ship, watching them finish loading it.

"Slaves to do what?"

"I'm guessing the adults are supposed to mine for whatever these things are." She spoke, saving the minerals in her backpack and putting it back on herself, along with her bow and arrow. "I'm scared about what the kids are for, though." She shivered, closing her eyes. "I think the Yakuza guy was telling us to get on the ship."

They looked at her as if she'd gone crazy.

"Why would we go into a slave ship?" Jenna asked.

"Because if we could manage to sneak in there, we could escape and get help. There is no way in hell we can get Allison and the others from the Millieu on our own."

"And who'll believe us?" Daniel asked exasperated. "That our friends have been captured in an island and are being held by the French Mafia to be turned into slaves so the Delta Alliance can take them mining for some purple minerals that don't look like anything we've ever seen? People will think we're insane."

"What do you suggest we do, then?" Elena asked, tired.

"Escape, and go back home, never talk to anyone again, never let them know we survived and live on." Lucas's words were cold and simple, and Elena looked at him as if waiting for him to tell that he was joking, but his expression made it clear that he meant it.

"I'm not leaving them here." She stated firmly. "Go ahead and run away if you want, but I'm not living on as if nothing happened. They are being hurt, Lucas."

"We can't save them, Elena." Lucas spoke firmly too. "Look around you! We're just lucky we weren't captured, but they will get us eventually, and then we'll die, too. I don't want to die."

"I hate to say it, but he has a point." Eric agreed, looking down. "It's one thing to survive the sharks, it's a completely different one to actually think we can save anyone from this kind of people. We're way out of our league."

"How are we escaping then?" Daniel pointed the second problem. "Are we really breaking into one of the ships?"

"That's impossible too. There has to be another way." Jenna complained.

Elena rolled her eyes and resumed watching the ship crew. It was taking too long for her to go back into being the shy girl nobody listened to. She tuned off, ignoring their conversation and focusing on the ship.

They loaded it through a rampage at it's side. The boxes went up first, then the people, and they were all chained up to each other, so trying to pass as a slave wouldn't work. They could fit in the larger boxes, but it gave them the problem of finding where they stayed until the ship arrived. If she could find it, she could enter it and just pray it worked.

The third option was playing crew member. She noticed how they seemed to act as if there was a hierarchy: they'd all bend and look down when they passed by the woman in red, showing that she had the power there. The men in black sailor's outfits were clean and weren't carrying any weight, instead only showing the men in blue where to grab it and where to take it, meaning that black was higher than blue. Lastly, the men in yellow were all dirty and sweaty, disposing of water and rests of food. So those were the ones that mattered less.

"Elena!" Daniel called her, drawing back her attention. "We're taking the other motorboat."

" _What_?"

"We're returning to the hotel. It's easier, and the other motorboat should still work. Come on, we're going back." He explained, and she looked at all of them, seeing their confident faces.

"You're going to get us killed." She told them. "We can't pull that off."

"Yes, we can. Without the fish, we won't draw the sharks, and even if we do the motor will be working, so all we need is to do the same fish and arrow trick from earlier."

"And then what? Forget it ever happened?" She crossed her arms.

"I don't know. Let's get out of here first, ok?" He asked softly before any of the others could rant at her. She sighed and followed them back to the other beach, and by the time they reached it, it was already dark. She opened her backpack and gave them all cookies, knowing that they were all starving.

"I didn't bring any real food, didn't think we'd need." She apologized while Eric and Lucas tried to turn on the motorboat.

They managed to, after a few tries, and pulled at the wheel, celebrating. Jenna boarded it immediately, and Daniel was about to follow, when Elena saw movement at the corner of her eye. Turning around, she saw no one, but grabbed her bow anyway.

The shot came from nowhere.

Elena pulled Daniel to the ground, and the three on the motorboat screamed. A second shot came after the first, and more screams from Jenna and Lucas.

Looking up, she followed the sound, and found the shooter as a third shot was fired. She aimed an arrow and shot at him, missing him as he dodged, but at least that made him stop.

She fired again, and this time, he ran for behind a coconut tree.

He aimed the gun at her, and she aimed it at the top of the tree, where she saw two coconuts dangling right above the man's head. The two of them shot at the same time, and while he laughed at her poor aim, she managed to throw herself out of the way just in time, being hit on her shoulder, but it only grazed. She watched as the coconuts dropped on the man's head and, the height and falling speed made it enough to bring him down.

She hurried at his body and checked his pulse, terrified, but feeling relief as she felt his heartbeat. Then, as a precaution, she took his gun and checked for any other weapons. Not finding any, she turned around and hurried to check on the others.

Daniel was ok, standing in the sand waiting for her, looking worried.

"You're hurt." He told her, checking on her shoulder.

"I know." She spoke, feeling it hurting. He ripped the bar of his shirt off and tied it around the wound to hold the bleeding. She nodded thankfully before walking up to the motorboat. "We need to leave, the gunshots will bring the entire island here." She spoke hurriedly, before she realized that Jenna, Lucas and Eric were kneeling, and the girl was crying.

She had blood on her shirt, and Elena realized she'd been hit in the shoulder, and really hit, because it seemed like Eric was trying to figure out how to remove the bullet.

"It hurts!" She complained. "Eric…"

"It's not a lethal wound." He told them all. "Jenna, here." He took off his shirt and did to her almost what Daniel had done for Elena, wrapping the clothe around the wound after pouring alcohol on it. Elena frowned, picturing the pain, and Jenna's scream made it clear that it was a lot.

"We don't get out of here, and these bullet wounds will feel like child's play." She told them, nervous, looking around. "Come on, we have to hide!"

Eric nodded, and he and Lucas helped Jenna down. They hurried inside the forest and as far away from the mountain as they could.

Elena heard one of them gasping and turned around to see that Eric had been caught in a rope trap: his feet were tied up and a net had fallen above him. He tried to get it off, but it was heavy.

They heard footsteps approaching and stared at each other in apprehension. Suddenly, Lucas screamed something, and ran away, dragging his sister behind him.

"He said he won't wait to die with Eric." Daniel told Elena, who didn't understand. "Honestly, buddy, sorry, but…" He looked at Eric, who had a betrayed look in his eyes. "Come on, Elena!" Daniel urged at her.

She looked at Daniel, then at Eric.

"We'll find a way to save you all." She promised him, feeling a painful pit in her stomach. "Just play along, don't fight them and don't die, please."

"They'll ask me how I got here." Eric complained.

"Elena, hurry!"

"Tell the truth." She spoke, surprising them both. "They already know you're not alone. Tell them we both escaped. Say that the other three died at the shooting in the beach and we both disposed their bodies in the water. Jenna's blood on the ship might make it believable."

"Wait, you're putting a target on yourself?" Daniel asked, distracted for a moment. The footsteps were getting closer.

"The man from the beach is alive. He's seen me. He didn't see what happened to them. It's our best option. In any case, Eric, please stay alive." She begged, both to him and to the skies, to whoever could listen and help with it. She grabbed Daniel's hand and they ran away from the steps, just in time to avoid being captured.

They ran within the woods until they reached another beach, this one full of rocks and seaweeds. Elena quickly retreated to the wooded area, being safer where they could hide. She looked around the beach and saw nobody.

"I think this is the east side." She told Daniel. "Presuming that we arrived from south, then that means the Ship arrives at northwestern and considering the direction we ran, we're at the north-eastern part of the island."

He fell to the ground, breathing fast, trying to recover his energies. She was exhausted, too, but somehow she couldn't sit down or rest. She wanted to keep moving.

"What do we do now?" Daniel asked her. "The boat is out of question."

"We also lost the first aid kit and the rope. They're in Jenna's bag." She told him, still looking around for something. "We need to eat."

"Cookies?" He looked up at her and she sighed, sitting down next to him, opening her bag and taking everything she'd brought: one natural sandwich, three packages of cookies and a water can."

"Allison must have put this there." She commented, seeing the sandwich and smiling. "Come on, it's better than nothing."

They ate quietly, paying attention to any sounds and when they were done, Elena quickly saved everything.

She picked up her cell phone, but it had no signal. She had tried it all the time, but apparently the mountain was free from electronic devices.

"Can't we send a message on a bottle?" Daniel suggested, closing his eyes, giving in to his exhaustion. "You know, like in that little kid's Disney movie?"

"So what, a couple of mice from the Rescue Aid Society can come to our aid?" She mocked him, smiling. "Besides, we don't have a pen and paper."

"Great." He muttered, his breathing slowing. "You can kill sharks and take down coconuts, but no pen and paper."

She giggled, watching him fall asleep. She looked for a tree she could climb and found it, close enough to Daniel, high enough for her to see everything, and the branches had so many leaves it made it hard for anyone to see her from the ground. Perfect spot.

She was tired and sleepy, too, but somehow managed to stay awake through the night, calling for Daniel when the sun started rising.

That's when they heard Jenna's scream, extremely loud and not so far away from where the two of them were.


	4. Ch4 - The Girl on The Beach

Daniel jumped up, startled, and looked at the redheaded, who looked tense at where the screaming came from.

"We need to move." He told her, scared, but she shook her head.

"We don't know where they are. We could walk into a trap. They don't know we're here." She told him in a low voice, looking from her spot in the tree and seeing no one. "But them catching Jenna is troublesome for Eric's story."

"You really need to find a better timing to worry about Eric's story." Daniel pointed out. "How do we leave this island?"

"I still think we should try the ship." She insisted. "We could track down the boxes, get inside them, and be shipped as a cargo."

" That's impossible and you know it." He spoke gravely, and she sighed.

"We don't have any other options, Daniel." She said, exhausted. They heard another scream and she frowned. "Why does she still sound so close?"

"What?" He blinked, lost by the change of subject.

"Jenna. Her screamings are sounding too close." She spoke, grabbing her cellphone and opening a recorder application. At least she could use the device for something. As another scream was heard, it was recorded, and she recorded the next one, too.

Hitting play, she frowned.

"Same pitch and duration…" She murmured, observing the recorder showing the pitch and sound distance. "It's not Jenna, it's a recording." She figured it out, looking at Daniel. "They're trying to draw us out."

"Because our actions so far totally show how loyal we are to each other, right?" He asked in an ironic tone. "We left Eric behind! We'd never go for Jenna."

"Her brother would." Elena pointed out and Daniel shut up. "And just so we're clear, I'm not planning on escaping and forgetting like you all were. I'll find out someone who can help somewhere."

"Sure, and I'll find a flying ship." He rolled his eyes. "This isn't a movie, Elena. The good guys don't get hurt and feel ok, we don't fly and we don't have miracles happening in our favor. We live and that's it. We can't save them."

"You better hope you don't convince me of that, Daniel, because if they catch you, too, I'll bet you'll want someone to show up and save you."

"I'd want the people I care about to be safe." He stated and she threw her arms in the air, frustrated.

A sound of hands clapping made them turn, tense. Elena aimed her bow, ready, but she couldn't find the source.

He appeared laughing, right at her arrow's aim.

"The guy from before!" Daniel recognized him.

"Came to get us?" Elena asked, remembering his last words.

"I was curious as to who the Millieu had caught. I heard it was a guy and a girl." He told them. "You're not very careful, you know? They're stupid, otherwise you'd be dead."

"Well, we're not, so now what?" She asked.

"Easy there, warrior." He spoke to her. "I gave you the way out and you somehow ended up back where you started. I don't think you deserve a second chance here."

"You gave us the way to a slave ship. How is that a way out?" Daniel complained.

"How do you know it's a slave ship?" The Japanese seemed curious.

"I could see them taking the humans." Elena answered. "Why are you here? Have you been following us?"

"I've been tracking you, there's a difference. Like I said, you're not very careful. You're noisy and he actually slept on the ground in plain sight." He shook his head in disapproval. "You're a little smarter on the hiding spots, but the talking part works against you." He looked back at her. "I'm here because I have an offer."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Join us." He surprised the two of them. "The crew here is formed by newbies, so it wouldn't be a problem. You're intelligent, you seem brave and we can teach you a few things. In return, we offer protection from everyone. It's your best option."

"Or what?"

"Or I'll take you both to them. I'm not letting you run around freely, it's creating a mess and the bosses can't know about it." He Spoke calmly. "Don't bother shooting me, kid, I could have taken that bow from you a long time ago."

"So it's either kill or be killed? Literally?" She asked, her heart pounding as she tried to think of a way out of that mess. "Join you guys in doing what?"

"We take care of the technological part." He spoke. "I can't give you more than that, but we don't meddle with humans, so your morals won't be affected. Also, you get to survive the war that's coming."

She looked at Daniel who, to her anger, seemed to be considering it.

"The second prize you get out of it is that he survives, too, because really we only need you." He told her, and that seemed to bring the other one back into reality. He looked scared at her, who hesitated. The answer was obviously 'no' in her mind – even though she knew that her friends would probably say yes if the roles had been reversed. The problem was that she needed a way out of his reach, or they'd be an easy prey.

She considered shooting him, but if she missed she'd be dead, or worse.

He sighed.

"I didn't really think you'd say yes." He commented, looking disappointed. "Sorry, kid, I really liked you." He added, pointing a gun at her and shooting. Daniel screamed and she threw herself down the tree, avoiding the bullet, but the fall made her an easy prey. He shot her again, hitting her shoulder with a syringe.

"What the…" She started asking, looking at the needle inserted in her skin, but then she blacked out.

* * *

 **Two Months later...**

Sara walked around Gargoyle's Island with her hands carefully hidden in her pockets and her head down, making sure not to look anyone in the eye. She had been walking all morning looking for clues on what was happening in Feuer Island, but she couldn't go and ask people randomly about it and none of the conversations she picked up so far were of any help.

She had a bad feeling about all that stuff. Feuer Island used to be the former League of Assassins disposal island. A very, very long time ago, they'd drop the bodies in the sea between Feuer and Viper's Mouth and let the sharks do their job. That is, until, according to Nyssa, they developed better methods of covering their tracks. Still, it bothered her to be around a place that had that kind of connection to the League.

She was also intrigued by how well the Mafia members were hiding themselves there. Bratva, Yakuza, they were everywhere and _she knew it_. She could recognize the tattoos, the way they spoke and even their postures, but nonetheless, nothing in any conversation was useful to her, and it was rare to see a Russian with his mouth tied up. They were usually noisy and loved to brag about their doings. So why was this time different? It wasn't like the local police would interfere, they probably had already bought them all.

She stopped walking by the beach, from where it was possible to see Feuer Island, Viper's Mouth, and three other islands far away in the horizon. From there, they were all small black dots, but there was definitely something shady going on in there.

"How long are you going to hide in there?" She asked, turning her head halfway to the side and seeing Thea walking out from behind a parked truck. "You've got terrible spying skills." She told the girl, who looked something between amused and scared. "Is something wrong?"

"No… Nothing. My brother thinks you shouldn't go walking around on your own. He thinks something's wrong." She spoke, sounding a little insecure. Sara had noticed that Thea was a lot more mature, and even her speech had changed. When she talked to Oliver, she sounded safe, confident. Still, with Sara herself, the girl changed.

"I just arrived in the island a few hours ago, I wanted to explore it." Sara said. "I'm not having side effects from the Pit, he can rest assured."

"I know." Thea spoke, and those words were full of certainty. "I've been there, too." She shrugged.

"I've heard. You've come a long way, Thea." Sara acknowledged.

"Listen, Sara, about what I did… About that night on the roof…" Thea started.

The blond finally understood what her insecurities were about.

"Oliver told me what happened." She quickly spoke, trying to sound as soft as she could. "I don't blame you, Thea. You had no control over yourself."

"I chose to go with Malcolm. I chose to be trained by him." She insisted.

"And now you're here trying to help us help people. You're not a bad person, Thea. That year was hard on all of us, but you had no idea of what was really going on. You made the best out of the circumstances just like the rest of us. There's no need for you to feel guilty, not on my account, ok?"

The younger Queen didn't answer, but her eyes showed she was ok. They returned to the penthouse and found Oliver talking to Nyssa through the television system Felicity had developed for them.

"This is like Skype on a TV." Thea commented.

"Nyssa." Sara spoke, seeing the black haired girl, whose eyes widened only slightly at the sight of her former lover. "It's good to see you again. I've heard of all you've done for Laurel."

"Your sister's a great person." Nyssa spoke solemnly. "Oliver, they'll be here soon. We'll talk again later."

He agreed and turned off the TV. Turning around to the two woman, he sighed.

"Nyssa's contacts within the League are informing her that it is no longer a single united organization. The second Malcolm Merlyn stood up as Ra's Al Ghul, a part of the Assassins decided to follow a new leader who rose within the dark." He told them, and his gaze fell on Sara. "The former Ra's told me about him, his name is Damien Dhark."

"The previous Heir to the Demon was known to be the leader of a secret organization." She told him. "Why is this important now? He never succeeded in anything."

"He succeeded in hiding from the League, which is impressive on its own. Now, he's showing up and gathering members from Malcolm's leadership, and apparently he is the one involved with the criminal organizations around here."

"So we're back on trusting my father, _again_? Please say no!" Thea complained.

"We're back to trusting no one, but playing that card on your father might do us good. At any rate, it will turn his attention away from us for a while. Nyssa agreed to share the information with him, and she'll keep us informed. Sara, found anything?"

She shook her head and reported every conversation she heard, no matter how meaningless, trying to find out anything about the Mafia's activities around the area. Oliver and Thea both listened carefully, but nothing stood out.

They spent the afternoon in a bar, acting like tourists and picking up on the drunken talks, when Thea decided that they should go for a walk on the beach. They opted for the eastern one, where Sara and Thea had their conversation earlier and where people rarely went, because of the large amount of seaweeds.

When they got there, though, they saw someone lying on the sand, almost being dragged out by the high tidal waves.

"Hello? Are you alright?" Thea called, hesitantly, and Sara walked down to check on the stranger. She frowned and knelt besides the body, checking for a pulse. Oliver and Thea approached them carefully, and Thea gasped.

"Is she…"

"She's alive." Sara answered Thea's unfinished question. "But barely."

It was a girl about Thea's age. She was full of wounds of all types, from bullets to what looked like sword or knife cuts. The parts of her body that weren't cut were either filled with burn marks or bruises, looking like she'd taken a hell of a beating. She had no clothes on and was breathing extremely slow.

"Should we call an ambulance?" Thea inquired, looking between his brother and his ex-girlfriend.

"Oh God! Elena?" A blond man on his late twenties or early thirties approached them, looking at the unconscious girl's body. "We've been looking everywhere! She ran away from us this morning and we thought she was just at a random bar. What happened?" He asked the trio, looking desperate.

"Do you know this girl?" Sara asked, standing up and looking like the last person someone would want to be friends with.

"She's my sister. My younger sister." He told them, looking at the girl. He knelt down and was about to carry her when Oliver's hand stopped him. "We need to take her somewhere!" He complained, looking at Queen.

"You can't move her body like that." Thea spoke, looking pitifully at him.

"I can do whatever I want, it's _my sister_." He rolled his eyes, waving Oliver aside and grabbing the girl on his arms.


	5. Ch5 - Photos

He lifted her up and turned to walk, when Sara blocked his way. Before he could complain, Oliver tacked him and Sara carefully set the girl back on the sand.

Thea watched as her brother and the blond guy engaged in a fight, and was surprised by the latter's fighting skills: not on Oliver's level, but he'd probably be enough to give Laurel some trouble, and that wasn't a light deal lately, since the Black Canary had been training intensively with Nyssa. Her brother pinned him down easily, though.

"What the hell is your problem, dude? She's my sister!"

"If I had found my sister half dead on a beach, I wouldn't be so calm." Oliver spoke. "I also wouldn't think about _taking her home_ , but to a hospital."

"He'd probably cover my body with something, too." Thea commented lightly while walking to where Sara and the girl were. The former was attempting to give the latter some first aid care, but they had nothing to work with there. The blonde's scream startled them.

"Oliver, you don't want to draw people's attention here!" Sara reprehended him, watching him break the blonde's wrist.

He looked at Sara, the girl, Thea, and the blond, and then hit his head to black him out.

"Thea, get an ambulance." He commanded. "Sara, stay here and go with them to the hospital. I'll take this one some place he can't escape or call anyone and I'll meet you there." They promptly obliged and Oliver left them to imprison the unconscious man.

"You know…" Thea spoke, as they waited for the ambulance. "If my brother's wrong and that guy's really her brother, we're in big trouble."

 _"Drown her!"_

 _"No! They want her alive. She's the one they want the most at The Farms. They've been looking for ages for a good slave to break."_

 _"Fine. Shoot her!"_

 _"Stop!" Jenna's voice startled her, who opened her eyes wide in time to see them beating her for screaming. One of them grabbed her and walked with her to the edge of the deck, and Elena watched, terrified, as they threw her out of the ship._

"No! Jenna!" Elena's eyes shot open and she sat up quickly, her heart beating fast in her chest. She blinked; confused for a moment, before realizing that it was all a dream. She remembered the real thing: Jenna was never thrown out of the ship, because Elena jumped herself and drew their attention.

She remembered the pain prior to her jumping. Her entire body was hurt. She had been undressed and then… then came the water, the salt and the waves. She also remembered hearing them preparing the life boats to go after her, and she swam, but hit her head in a rock and blacked out.

Looking around, she realized she was in a hospital. There were wires connected to her entire body, monitoring her heartbeat and life force, and a needle in her wrist feeding her saline and probably medicine. Her wounds had been stitched up and her skin was clean. She was also wearing underwear behind the horrible hospital green dress.

She frowned, trying to find anything that would tell her the time or date. She could only tell it was daytime because of the sunlight coming through her window.

The heart monitor was beeping like crazy due to her accelerated heartbeat, and the sound was making her nervous.

"She's up!" A nurse suddenly appeared at her door and called out to the hallway, from where a doctor came running. It was a middle-aged man with white hair and a sweet smile on his face, but Elena retreated in the bed, hugging her knees instinctively as if it would keep her safe. Seeing that reaction, he stopped moving, and held up a hand to signal for the nurse to stay put.

"Hello there." He spoke softly, looking her in the eyes. His were deep blue and hers were green.

She didn't answer. Her throat suddenly felt too dry.

"My name is Robert Michaels. I'm a doctor from New York, called here by an old friend to take care of you ever since you were brought to this hospital. What's your name?"

"Where am I?" She asked, ignoring his gentle words.

"Gargoyle Island's hospital. You were… You were found on the beach." He told her.

"So I'm still on an island?" She asked, her heartbeat increasing again as she felt the panic threatening to strike her. "Are we near Viper's Mouth and Feuer Island?"

He nodded, looking confused now.

"We need to take a look at you and maybe if you could tell us what happened, we…" He started.

"This is one of the five islands." She spoke to herself, ignoring him and removing the needle and the wires from herself. He and the nurse immediately moved to contain her, but she pushed him away and tackled the nurse. They were taken out of her way purely by surprise, but she managed to leave her room.

"Security!" The nurse called, and Elena ran down the hospital hallway, catching a bunch of surprised looks on patients and nurses. Somebody sounded the alarm and Elena was stopped by three security guards who appeared, coming from the exit door. She turned, but two other men in black appeared from her behind, surrounding her.

"What the hell?" A female voice coming from the entrance door caught her attention. It was a brunette with short hair and brown eyes, looking around Elena's age, maybe younger, and she stared at the group of securities and Elena with a mix of shock and outrage.

"She tackled the doctor and the nurse." One of the security guards spoke, approaching Elena, who quickly stepped away. "We were called to take her back to her room."

The girl pulled the security guard back and entered the circle.

"Not by scaring her to death, you're not!" She spoke to them, and they hesitated. She looked at Elena. "Sorry about that. Are you…" She started asking and stopped. "Why were you running?" She asked instead.

"I can't be here. I'm fine, see?" Elena asked, showing her body, that wasn't covered by the hospital vests, but it looked everything but fine. "You can't keep me here against my will." She added defensively.

"Doctor Michaels, tell the guards to go back to their posts." A man spoke from the entrance door, watching Elena and the other girl. He was tall, in an extremely good shape, had blond hair and blue eyes. He looked familiar somehow, but she couldn't place him. She turned around and saw that the old doctor stood a little behind the two guards, and looked puzzled at the requester.

"We have a family jet arriving soon with one of our private doctors." The stranger explained and Elena froze. "She's recovered enough to be able to move without opening any of her injuries, right?"

The doctor nodded and ordered the guards to retreat. Two of them hesitated only slightly, but the girl noticed and narrowed her eyes. The stranger girl and man gently pulled her outside, where they walked her to a car.

"Why are we taking her from the hospital?" The girl asked the man, whose eyes wouldn't leave Elena.

"Don't try to run." He told her, to her surprise. "I can see in your eyes that you planned to try. Don't, we'll catch you."

"So I just go down without a fight?" She inquired calmly, surprised at how cold her voice sounded, even to her ears.

"We're not taking you back to wherever you were before." He told her. "We're not working with the people that captured you, but half the people in this Island are, so the sooner we get you to a hiding place, the better." His voice was calm and his expression was soft, but she could hear the tension hidden behind his words. Looking around one last time, wondering if there really was no way for her to run, she jumped, startled, when his hand gently touched her shoulder. His eyes were practically burning her skin now.

"No running, got it." She muttered, stepping away from his touch and into the backseat.

"I'm Thea." The girl introduced herself, getting into the car. "This is my brother, Oliver. Nice to meet you."

Elena simply looked through the window, and then to the door handle while Oliver drew the car away from the hospital. Her hand rested on it, her head working out plans and escape ways. Before she could actually do what she was thinking – open the door and jump out of the car – the backdoor was locked and she couldn't open it herself. Crossing her arms, she waited, until they reached a ferry port.

"Wait, you're taking a ferry boat?" She inquired, looking at the amount of cars inside it. "I thought you only used ships and private jets. You said something about a private jet back at the hospital."

"What?" Thea frowned, looking at her.

"She means the people who she was running from." Oliver explained, and Elena shot him an incredulous look. "Which I said we are not. The private jet thing was a lie to ease them off."

"Sure, because they wouldn't say that." She looked outside the window again. "At least the Yakuza guy was honest from the first second." She muttered, remembering how he was the only one who actually told them he was from the Mafia.

The ferry boat made its way to firm land.

"The Yakuza?" Thea looked between her brother and Elena. "So they really are involved."

Elena frowned. That was way too much acting considering she was already in their custody. Her heart raced when she started considering the possibility that they were telling the truth and weren't trying to take her back.

The ferry arrived and Oliver drove away from the port so fast she feared they'd crash, but they simply reached a farmhouse about half an hour from the town. It had a huge green terrain, plantations all around, and even a forest, before they actually reached the house.

"Wow." Elena exclaimed, seeing the three levels white Victorian house in front of them. The windows and the door were made of a dark wood and the roof was a dark shade of red, giving it a picturesque image. The porch was full of flowery pots and ferns. The garden around the house was marvelous, too.

"My dad owned this house." Thea told her. "It's not on our names, though, so there's no risk of anyone tracking us down even if they somehow knew we're the ones hiding you." She got off of the car and Oliver opened Elena's door.

"Sorry for locking it." He spoke in a not-so-sorry voice. She glanced him an annoyed look and got down, feeling dizzy and supporting herself on the door handle. He watched her closely, but didn't move to touch her again.

The main door opened and a blond woman came from inside the house. She looked strong and somehow gave off the impression of power. Her icy blue eyes were deadly cold and Elena caught herself feeling sorry for her. Nobody had cold eyes like that and had a happy past.

"The room downstairs is all set up for her, and Nyssa told me that the blond is taken care of." The woman informed Oliver, who nodded, guiding Elena inside.

They went through the main hall and a large hallway, full of doors, in which the last one was a huge guest bedroom. The king size bed had those princess-like bedposts with lavender curtains, matching the sheets. There was a wardrobe with a few clothes in it and a TV. Also, above the bed lied a notebook.

"What…" She started to ask, puzzled.

"Thea's idea." The blond woman spoke, looking between Elena and Oliver, who also seemed puzzled at the TV and computer.

"Well, you're not going very far until you recover and you can't go out alone since there are people trying to capture you, so I figured you'd want something to pass the time." Thea spoke in an innocent voice, and Elena bit her lip. That didn't feel like a dangerous place at all. It felt like they really wanted to help, so why couldn't she trust them?

"What's your name?" Thea asked again.

"Elena." She answered, looking at the bed and feeling suddenly exhausted. She'd been sleeping for a long time, so how could she be tired? "How long was I asleep?" She inquired, realizing she didn't know that.

"Two weeks." Oliver answered. "The doctors had to put you in an induced coma for a while to take care of some of the worse wounds. We gave them a fake name, and that old doctor you tackled works for A.R.G.U.S. You're safe."

"ARGUS?" She frowned, trying to remember if she'd heard that word before.

"Secret agency." Thea resumed. "The point is, nobody knows you're alive or you're here. The nurses assigned to you are from his private team and they'll leave the Island now that you're awake."

"Sounds like you three went to a lot of trouble to make sure nobody knows where I am." She pointed out, unable to refrain from being suspicious. "Why? And who are you?"

"We…" Thea started, and Oliver raised a hand.

"Sara." He looked at the blond woman, who nodded and whispered something at Thea's ear. The girl looked hesitant but nodded, and the two of them left, closing the door behind them and leaving Elena alone with him.

She stepped away immediately and he didn't move.

"Why don't you lie down? You look tired." He suggested. "I'll stay by the door, I won't hurt you."

Sighing, she sat at the bed, upon the covers, feeling her entire body thanking her.

"Sara should be better at talking to someone than I am." He told her, resting his back against the door. "However, she's in a delicate state right now, too, even though she won't tell us, so it might be a bad idea."

Elena remained in silence.

"We found you at the beach in Gargoyle Island." He told her, and she hugged her knees, like she'd done in the hospital bed when she wanted protection. "We took you to the hospital, you were nearly dead and badly injured. It was a near miss, to be honest."

"Maybe I should just have died." She whispered to herself, looking down to her feet. She realized that the hospital had cleaned her up, but her nails definitely needed some care. She also needed to wax, and probably tend to her hair and eyebrows.

 _Why am I thinking like Allison in a time like this?_ She questioned herself, shaking her head.

"The doctor gave me the results of the exams he did on you." Oliver informed her, and the tension in his voice made her look up at him. His eyes were wary. "The bruises were made from hits, probably a fist. The cuts were from butcher knives, small swords and one specifically was from a broken glass: there were still shards inside the cut." He watched her carefully and she faced his glance, hiding every single emotion from him and herself. "The burnt marks were from burning metal, but that I was able to tell on my own. You had a bullet in your shoulder, and a scar on the other one that suggests you've been shot before. An x-ray revealed that there were no substances within your body, though."

"Why are you telling me that? I already know, I remember." She complained, finding it harder to keep all her emotions hidden behind the wall she'd raised when he was pointing everything out. It drew the memories back to surface, and she couldn't deal with them.

"They also found traces of drug substances in your blood." He finished, ignoring her question.

"They drugged us to make us oblige. The drugs were either a prize, for complying, or a punishment, for rebelling, in which case they gave us something that made us feel scared to death and in a lot of pain. I don't know what it was, they never gave anything any names." She told him. "Is that what you want?"

"Who are _they_?" Oliver asked, and something in his eyes made she feel like she could tell him.

She lifted the blankets and covered herself up to her neck, hugging her knees behind the covers, and resting her back on the pillows. There were so many that she was able to remain in a sitting position, and comfortable.

"Why don't you seat, too?" She asked, murmuring. "It's weird talking to you standing like that."

He nodded, sitting at the edge of bed and looking at her.

"Why are you helping me?" She inquired.

"Because it looked like you needed it."

"It looked like I needed a hospital, not a hiding place and a lot of safety measures to keep me hidden from the world." She corrected him. "How did you know that there would be people after me?"

"Because one of them appeared at the beach when we found you." He informed and she froze, opening her eyes widely. "He's taken care of, he won't get to you." He assured her. "However, it was easy to guess he wouldn't be the only one coming. Sara and I have been dabbling in this world for a long while."

"So you guys are mafia, too?"

He smiled.

"Not exactly. We can help you, though. We are here to investigate the mafia activity around these islands, so we might have similar interests."

"Investigate the mafia activity? Why?"

His eyes softened at her question at the same time that she realized he wouldn't give her that answer. She wondered whether she should trust them or not, but looking around the bedroom, and thinking about the house, how careful they were with her and the way they were treating her, she figured it was worth the shot. Worst case scenario would send her back to the hands of the Millieu, which she only escaped in the first place thanks to those three strangers.

Best case scenario, she might actually have a chance at figuring out exactly what was going on and how she could help her friends.

"We were going on vacation to Heartkreuz Island." She spoke, getting back his attention. "We arrived there, and a friend of ours decided we should go to a party in Feuer Island the following day. She arranged for everything, from the motorboats to take us there to the party tickets, and so we boarded the following morning. Two boats, five of us in each."

"One of them was attacked by the sharks near Viper's Mouth and the other made it to the Island?" He guessed, and she frowned, losing her focus.

"How do you know that?" She asked, her aggressive voice tone and posture back.

"It was all over the news. You are all presumed dead." He informed her, to her horror. She covered her mouth and bit the inside of her cheeks to refrain the tears – it had become a habit when she was a prisoner. Her family, everyone thought she was _dead_?

"So no one would look for us." She whispered, realizing the reason they had thrown her group to the sharks in the first place. "Tell that one group died, they'll assume the other one did, too, and nobody would look. So that's why none of their prisoners was never presumed missing. We were all presumed dead." She spoke to herself, thinking of everyone who those people had taken before her.

"The other boat…" Oliver started and she shook her head negatively.

"The fact that you think that is either proof that you're an extremely good actor, or that you really don't work for them." She commented, convincing herself to just tell everything at once. He seemed at lost with her words. "None of us were killed by the sharks. We faked that." She told him.

" _What?_ "

"They split the boats halfway through the island. Ours was turned around and headed to Viper's Mouth. Allison's… I mean, the second boat, was taken to Feuer Island. They were the ones who were first imprisoned. They were taken to The Farms last month." She explained. "We… The pilot broke the motor and left the motorboat, with us in it. They carried baskets of fish that smelled so strongly it would attract the sharks. My friends… They had seen Viper's Mouth and decided to paddle our way to the island, and when they saw the sharks after us, they freaked out. None of them knew what that island was."

"You speak as if you've known."

"I did." She nodded. "I was a loner back at college. Hung out with them from time to time, but mostly I was at my room watching movies or reading. Trust me, that means a lot of reading time." She gave him a resigned smile. "Which you probably won't understand, you look like college popular crew."

He raised an eyebrow, distracted by her remark.

"I never finished college." He informed her, keeping his amusement hidden, afraid of irritating her. She seemed to be always on edge of her emotions.

"That fits the look, too." She shrugged, and he tilted his head, half smiling. "Anyway, the fact is, I knew the island. I told them to stop and they didn't, so we headed to it. I saw the snakes, figured out a way to return and survive the sharks, and hopefully make it to Feuer Island, and it worked. None of us were hurt and we arrived there after a while."

"How did you _figure out_ a way to avoid that?" He inquired, truly curious.

"It's a long story, and I just told you that to explain how both boats made it this time." She shrugged. "We got down on the island, realized things were wrong and our friends had been captured, and my friend sent the boat back on the sea, with the fish, so the sharks would take it down and make it look like we died, which was what should have happened. We hoped to give ourselves a wild card if we were presumed dead by the captors. I never really thought about our families and…"

She took a deep breath, focusing.

"We were captured, too, though." She looked into his eyes. "Managed to last a day, some of us less than that. Before we were, however, this Japanese guy appeared and gave us some information."

"Japanese?"

She nodded.

"He told us that our captors were part of the Millieu, and that he was part of the Yakuza. We learned that the Triad is involved as well, and so is a group of Canadians, and some powerful British siblings as well. I don't think either of the latter have a name."

"Involved in what?"

She shook her head.

"All I know is that the French mafia is in charge of capturing people. They train them to be slaves in the island, breaking them during one month. After that, we are taken to an evaluation room, where a member of the Triad interrogates and tests us. He tells the French which of us is ready for the Mines and which still need some time to be broken. They take us to a ship, and the ones who need to be broken are taken to The Farms. I don't know what those are, but that's where they were taking me." She informed. "The Mines are in another of the five islands. I think Gargoyle is their employing island, where the mafias send people to work in Feuer Island. From what I understood of their conversations, Heartkreuz is the Gathering Land and belongs to the Millieu. Viper's Mouth belongs to the British Siblings, who actually live somewhere within there and found a way to survive and extract something from there. There is another island, the one nearest to Viper's Mouth, that is home of the Yakuza. Apparently it's the smaller of the archipelagos. The Farms belong to the Triad and the Mines, to the Canadians."

"They told you all that?"

She shook her head.

"They told us nothing. I picked up on their conversations. The ones in French were pretty easy to understand, since I speak a little bit and after some time I was able to pick up on words here and there. Whenever a foreign ambassador appeared, they'd talk in Chinese, which was the hard part to pick up. Well, nearly impossible, but I started to memorize the words I'd hear. Spent a day repeating them in my head, so if you know anyone who speaks Chinese, I might be able to remember a few lose sentences. Three or four at most." She frowned, forcing her memory.

He stared at her with an unreadable expression.

"What?" She asked, bothered.

He shook his head.

"It's nothing; I was just thinking of how much you remind me of someone." He told her, thinking of Helena. Even their names were similar, now that he thought about it. "She was driven, too, and a little vengeful."

Elena frowned, finally realizing where she'd seen him.

"Helena as in, The Huntress Helena?" She asked, her jaw dropping, and he realized he had said the name out loud. "Oh my… You're Oliver Queen! I _knew_ I had seen your face somewhere! I used to read a lot about Starling City before that huge invasion of super people. I stopped keeping track though."

It was the first time since they'd taken her to the house that Oliver saw any life in her eyes, something to give her cold demeanor some light. She looked actually excited to figure that fact out, and he wondered whether it was a good or bad thing.

"Why are you and your sister meddling into Mafia stuff?" She inquired, now even more curious. "You two are billionaires, why do you care?"

"Only Thea is, the Queen fortune is gone." He told her. "We all have complicated stories. Just finish your story first."

She sighed, but obliged, now with renewed interest.

"Anyway, they call themselves The Delta Alliance. I have no idea of what's going on, just that the Yakuza deal with the technology, because the Japanese guy told me so, and that the Canadians are mining some purple diamond-like mineral. They take it to Feuer island and I think it is lately moved to Viper's Mouth. I don't know more than that."

She waited a while before he took a deep breath and seemed about to talk.

Thea knocked on the door and opened it just then, slowly entering, and relaxing as she saw her brother sitting on the bed.

"We made dinner." She told them. "I hope you like pasta, we don't have many options here. I'll go downtown tomorrow to buy everything we need."

"I'm not staying here." She told them, and Oliver sighed as her voice acquired a different tone. She sounded a little desperate now. "Everyone from the boats are still there. I can't just…"

"Nobody's asking you to leave them." Oliver assured her, while Thea looked curious at them. "We'll help you, but you need to recover first, and we need to gather more information on their current affairs, along with a plan of action. Something that won't get you captured by them again, ok?"

She hesitated, but agreed, the thought of being captured again being too terrifying for her.

"Do you want us to bring it here or…" Thea started, but she shook her head.

"I'm ok." She guaranteed. "I could use a change of clothes, though." She added, biting her lip, and the younger Queen nodded, sending her brother out of the bedroom and going through the clothes in the wardrobe.

"Those are mine, we brought them thinking they might fit you." She informed Elena, taking a beautiful floral summer dress from the wardrobe and showing it to her. "I never used this, my aunt gave it to me but I thought it was too girly at the time."

"I…" Elena hesitated, but Thea threw it to her, and she quickly took off that horrid hospital outfit. She took a minute to look at her reflection in the mirror, taking in the few stitches that hadn't been removed yet, the burn marks and all the scars. She knew she had lash marks in her back, and even her arms and legs had a few marks.

"They fade a little." Thea told her, and she quickly covered her torso with the dress, which fit perfectly and went all the way to her knee. Her arms were exposed, though, but they didn't bother her as much as the rest of the body scars. "The scars, they'll fade. Not completely, but they will. We could get you some stuff to help." She offered.

"It's ok, thank you." She forced a smile and they left the room, going down the hallway to a lovely dining room. It's outer wall was made of glass and they could see the garden outside, and a lake further. The forest hid anything beyond the lake from their view, making it feel a little more like a private place.

"The glass is mirrored on the other side." Sara told her, sitting next to Oliver on the table. She nodded, sitting near Thea, who was calling her. They ate in silence, and Elena was the first to finish – both because it tasted amazing and because it was the first real meal she had in two months.

She washed the dishes – being the least she could do after all the trouble she was giving them. After everything was clean, she returned to the guest room, feeling uneasy about being there.

Curious, she turned on the TV and zapped through the channels, making sure to avoid any News Channels. She didn't need information on the bad stuff going around the world, she needed something to clear her head.

She settled for a random comedy movie and lied down in bed, watching it without really paying much attention. At some point, she drifted asleep.

 _"Elena, help!"_

 _"They're hurting us!"_

 _"You said you'd never leave us behind! Where are you?"_

She woke up in the middle of the night, the nightmare still shaking her body.

"Dammit, why am I having guilty nightmares? There's nothing I can do right now." She complained to herself, looking around the dark room. She recalled leaving the lights on, which meant someone turned them off during the night.

Standing up, she decided to get a glass of water, and made her way to the kitchen, when an open door called her attention. She remembered it being locked before, and, curious, entered the room, going down a staircase… And finding herself in a crazy sort of arsenal room. There was a rink in the middle of it, several cases filled with herbs and jars with stones and other stuff, and a green suit exposed within a glass. Next to it there was a white fighting gear and, by its side, a red hooded suit.

She saw the bow and arrow near each of the colored suits and touched the green set, admiring it, processing what she was just seeing.

"Elena?" Oliver's voice startled her and she jumped, grabbing the bow by instinct, and quickly feeling her face burn. She gently set it back and looked up the stairs, where he stood, looking at her. His face was worried and a little angry. "What the hell are you doing up?"

"I wanted water." She spoke, afraid of the angry tone. "The door was open, I was just curious…"

"This isn't…" He started, approaching her, and she noticed then that he was shirtless and sweaty. It was hard to see much else in the dark, but she backed away, now even more worried. He stopped.

"You're The Arrow." She spoke, and it wasn't a question. "The two other outfits… Thea's the archer in red, right? Which makes Sara the blond girl who ran around in a black outfit, although this one is white."

"This is not what you think…" He started and she eyed him amused.

"You can't twist this into a story, Mr. Queen." She informed him and he sighed.

"Oliver's fine." He spoke, steadying himself, sounding less angry, more emotionless. "You weren't supposed to find that out yet."

"Why not? Afraid that the presumed dead girl will tell somebody? Even if I had something to tell, you could stop me way before I got out of this place." She crossed her arms. "Besides, I'm hardly one to go around telling people's secrets. Now it makes a little bit more sense why you saved me."

"We're not heroes." He warned her.

"I know that. But you're not evil, either. How did you go from spoiled billionaire to man in a green hood?" She asked, curious, and her eyes widened with self realization. "Don't tell me that the island…"

He nodded, grabbing his bow and walking up to an area with a few targets. He loaded an arrow and shot, hitting perfectly. She followed, watching as he started shooting tennis balls that a machine would randomly throw in the air.

"Lian Yu wasn't deserted as I told people." He admitted, still shooting. "I had to learn to survive." Dropping his bow, he turned and approached her. She froze, but he didn't touch her, standing a few centimeters away. "Thea said you're worried about the scars. You're not the only one with them."

Confused, she took a closer look at his chest, and the scars slowly appeared, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She looked at them feeling her mouth drying. He turned around to get his bow again and she saw that his back was just as wrecked.

"I… I'm sorry." She said, looking down.

"Wasn't your fault." He smiled, shooting again.

"Not for that. For playing crazy victim all day. I spoke of Feuer Island as if it had been the worst thing ever, but you went through five years of whatever it was…"

He turned, looking surprised at her words.

Instead of answering her, he offered her his bow.

"You were looking at it as if you wanted to use it." He spoke. "Have you ever shot before?"

She nodded, hesitantly taking it in her hands.

"It's heavier than the military one they had." She murmured, adjusting her hands to the weight. "I can't shoot a moving target like that." She informed, looking at the tennis balls.

He started orienting her on how to shoot the moving thing, and they spent a long part of the night in the Arsenal room – as she called it in her mind. When they did stop, and she returned to bed, she managed to get the first good night sleep without the need of any medications. The exhaustion from the physical effort – even if little – and the feeling of safety that finally sunk in worked into making it possible for her mind to finally shut down.

Oliver, though, was met upstairs by Sara, who had been watching him curiously.

"You like her." Sara spoke, looking at him. "She seems to have started to trust you, too."

"She knows about The Arrow." He informed, taking the blond and moving to their bedroom. It was the last they spoke about that night.

* * *

The woman in red walked around the dark room to ease her fury. The photos she'd taken that day were the most beautiful she had ever taken, yet somehow they weren't enough to ease her off. She felt outraged that her man had managed to lose a slave in the middle of the sea, and the girl was yet to be found.

"Any news on Mili-1?" She asked an agent who entered the room to tell her something. He shook his head negatively. "Then leave me."

"We have news on the girl, your Mistress." He told her and she narrowed her eyes. "She… We heard that a girl washed up on Gargoyle Island's beach and was taken to the hospital by a group of tourists. They say that she was badly injured, and treated there by a foreign doctor that's off the radar now. Our man on the security detail in the hospital claims that the tourists took the girl and left."

"Left to where?" She inquired. "Who are those tourists?"

"The security saw two people, siblings. The third one only came to the hospital at the first week and they didn't recognize her, but the siblings…"

"What about them?"

"They're from Starling City. They're Oliver and Thea Queen, Mistress."

"Get me everything you can on them. Send an unit to Starling City to investigate friends and family. Do not engage on anything that will attract their attention yet, understand me? They're keeping her hidden when they could have just exposed her to the world as a survivor. That means they're up to something. Proceed with caution."

The agent retreated, leaving her in her dark room. She looked at the picture closer to her, and smiled.

"You, pretty, are definitely going to get us money." She spoke to the picture, seeing the blond, tanned girl looking away at the horizon, seeming lost in thought. "Allison, huh?" She read the name on the girl's collar tag. "Get back from the Farms fast, sweetie, please."

Turning around, she resumed revealing the photos and hanging them to dry out.


End file.
